There is a bar in my neighborhood that is geek friendly and geek themed. I go there alone pretty often now and have made friends with all the bartenders. I didn't have many friends, and I've made friends there, and it gets me out of the house. They have trivia nights and video game nights, so it's fun to go out alone and meet new people. It's really the only bar I frequent and feel comfortable visiting alone.

Came to suggest this. I rented a dress for $50, and I believe they sent two sizes to me to make sure I got the right fit. Can't remember if the second size was cheap or free... Either way, I'm planning on using them again.

There was a terrific episode of the podcast Invisibilia about this very topic. Basically, they discovered that the belief and patriarchal cultural norm that men need to be "tough," "manly" and emotionally distant might be leading to workplace deaths.

It's using some aspect of identity as a gimmick, and then riding on the coattails of the original.

Hm. I see your point here. The marketing has been shit from the beginning, and I want to say that the female cast is a strength rather than a gimmick, but agree to disagree.

It would probably be more accurate to say Sony wanted this all-female cast and Feig was the man they got - I should be saying it's Sony and the media being 'trendy', not the director.

Let's say I admit this is true, that it's trendy. Is that a bad thing?

Here I was considering the same journalists who labelled people as sexist for not wanting to see it, not saying literally everyone gave it a free pass.

Sorry, I'm not sure I follow. I thought you meant feminists and other supporters were giving it a free pass.

There were journalists who did quite literally say if you didn't want to see the movie you were sexist. The article I linked [...]

Let me go back and read the links in the article... okay, the one article that the link points out as the most egregious goes out of it's way to say, and I quote, "Disliking the new Ghostbusters doesn’t make you sexist." Another article he linked to states, "It’s quite possible that Rolfe’s objections have nothing to do with Ghostbusters being remade with female leads..." So some random bloggers or twitterers might be calling him sexist, but these journalists are not.

As for Leslie Jones, from what I've seen in the conflict between her and Milo, she said just as many, if not more hateful things than Milo did. I have little sympathy for her. (Although did get a lot of shit from Milo's followers.)

Milo's followers are not an "insignificant minority." And those hateful things Milo retweeted that she appeared to have said were photoshopped fakes.

I think this is the issue is that holly-wood made it with the INTENTION of it starring all women. This kind of thinking is mostly unheard of. They wanted a gimmick which they could market - and then filled in the roles. Oceans 11 nor the original Ghostbusters needed to market it's 'all male cast' because it's irrelevant. If you want an all female cast or an all male cast or an all black cast, sure, but I don't think using that as a marketing tool is sound.

I don't think mainstream Hollywood has any idea of how to market these films, and GB'16 is a prime example. They have no idea what to do with a movie that is majority women. The fact that an all-woman cast is a novelty is part of the problem. This should be the norm.

It should also be noted that in some places simply being a woman is considered a declaration of some sort. Some sort of political agenda for simply existing. Because we aren't the default. And the fact that we are different is what calls attention to us, whether or not we're pointing it out ourselves. Yes, women are featured predominantly in the marketing because women are in the movie.

And the film is not responsible for the hate it got. That's silly. The trailer was weak, but this? The movie doesn't deserve this. Have you seen it?

Also, friends who are reading: can we not downvote this person? I disagree with them, but we're having a great, calm, and reasoned exchange of ideas. We don't get that a lot in here. Knock it off. Thanks.

Honestly I spent a lot of time reading reactions and so on - the vast majority (95%+) has no sexist elements to them, just frustration and anger at what they believed to be a hack-job

Fair enough, but I would posit that this same frustration and anger has not been leveled at reboots that aren't recast with women. So while it may not be explicitly or overtly, or even intentionally sexist... that uneven response has to raise some questions.

People were partially annoyed at how the movie was being crusaded as this great empowering movie when it seemed obvious to people that the director was trying to jump onto the bandwagon of gender politics.

I disagree here. I'm a big fan of Paul Feig, and if he jumped on any bandwagon, he did it ten years ago. Sony hired him, so they had to know what they were getting with his movies, which have always been female-led films. Seriously, have you seen Spy? Looove that movie, it's really underrated. Sorry, getting off topic again. To complain that Feig is being trendy is to ignore Feig's body of work. I remember a similar outrage over James Gunn directing Guardians of the Galaxy when an old blog post was dug up. The post was stupid and sexist, but it was meant to be tongue in cheek. People unfamiliar with his work labelled him a sexist, but people who did know his work recognized the satire.

I didn't say feminists support bad stereotypes - it was noted how accepting journalists and bloggers and feminists were of Ghostbusters which contained stereotypes about black women and men.

No, I saw a TON of backlash over Patty's portrayal in the trailer, which does appear to come off as a racist stereotype.

Ghostbusters got a free pass with this people, because what was important wasn't the quality of writing, or the realism of the cgi - it was only the fact the cast was female and how this was the best thing ever for women.

I think you're being a bit hyperbolic here. Like I said, there was a large criticism of perceived racism in the trailer that Leslie Jones came out and defended.

which contains a video of a man explaining why he won't review it, and the reactions from multiple journalists

This is one guy who decided to skip seeing a movie because of what he thought was going to be in it. It's one guy, sorry, I thought you meant anyone who criticized the movie was automatically sexist. Also, this article calls the Nostalgia Critic a "full SJW retard," and is railing against the "left-wing," so I'm not sure I can take it seriously.

A quick google will find sources showing the actors and the director calling people sexist who really had nothing sexist to say. 'Ghostbusters sexism' might get some good results.

But you also just agreed that some of the backlash has absolutely been motivated by sexism. Hell, Leslie Jones received an avalanche of Twitter hate that was both racist and sexist.

This film was so simple, light, and fluffy that after seeing it my friends and I were amazed that it got all this drama before it ever came out. And the only thing that makes it different from every other remake and reboot that Hollywood has churned out is that it stars women. Star Trek is just as beloved, if not more so than Ghostbusters, but the outcry was never this bad. We have to be honest with ourselves when we try to figure out why. Again, the sexism probably isn't intentional. It's probably not even conscious. But sexism, racism... to borrow a turn of phrase, these are the background radiation of our society. We're probably not even aware we're being hypercritical of women, we probably brush it off and insist it has nothing to do with gender. But it's there. We need to pay attention to it and evaluate ourselves.

Friend, if you want to start a discussion about women in the media, you should start another thread. You asked me to name them, so I did. If you want to discuss each individual movie, I can point you to a number of feminist writings on each one to save us some time.

To respond to yet another edit, I don't think that the original Ghostbusters film was sexist (though Venkmann not getting called out for his inappropriate flirting with a student the way Erin was is kinda gross looking back on it), it's certainly symptomatic of the small number of leading and comedic roles for women in Hollywood. I don't think this one remake changes that, but it's a great start.

As I said, the GB'16 are flawed, too. Erin flirts inappropriately with Kevin, and cares too much what people think. Abby is quick to anger, impulsice, and is cruel to Erin at the start. Holtzmann is a weirdo, and I can't think of anything for Patty, but I can't really think of anything for Winston, either. Patty is awesome. If you like, I can trace out the filmwriting 101 "hero's journey" parallels between Erin and Rowan.

because women making queef jokes displaying swagger and a jock like behaviour is typical for female characters.

You must not hang out with a lot of women. We do this shit all the time. My friends and I call queefing "exiting through the gift shop." Take a look at TrollX. Women make queef jokes and act like jocks.

But let's be fair here. Of all the remakes and reboots that we've had recently, the most vicious backlash was against one starring women. There absolutely was a sexist element to the reaction from the internet. The only similar reaction, on a much smaller scale, as the black Johnny Storm.

Though... as a women, it's kind of fucked up to hear that my gender is a dishonest gimmick. If we don't care about gender roles, then why is being a woman a gimmick? And which bad stereotypes are you referring to that feminists support in the film?

And I was unaware of journalists automatically labeling people sexist. Can you point me to them?

And yeah, the film wasn't perfect. I have a few nitpicks. But overall I really enjoyed it. When the credits rolled, I turned to my friend and said, "See, this is why intellectual property rights need to expire. So that new people can come in and tell new stories with worlds we're familiar with." I think the film would have been even better without studio oversight, but I digress.

Here's the weird thing to me about all these dudes suddenly caring about sexism in the media when it's Ghostbusters... are they saying we were right this whole time to do the same? If the male characters in this movie are negative portrayals, then they must agree that we were right about every other movie with negative portrayals of women and the impact that's had on the larger culture. Right?

If Ghostbusters '16 is misandrist for having an all female cast, then Ghostbusters '84 MUST be misogynist for having an all male cast, not to mention the entire history of cinema since the dawn of celluloid!

You guys, they agree that we've been right to criticize sexism in the media this whole time!!

And I'm pretty sure all the women were women in women's bodies, with the exception of a brief possession scene. With the exception of the Ghostbusters themselves, everyone else was dumb or villainous, including Cecily Strong's character. And even the Ghostbusters themselves were flawed. Goofy, inappropriate, clumsy, callous, etc. It's a comedy, after all. You have seen the movie, haven't you?

I used to have this problem and would resort to buying smaller bread from the bakery section rather than a whole loaf, or buying English muffins instead. Basically I'd substitute a food item with some other closely related food that comes in smaller portions or that lasts longer.

Lately though I've been meal planning and it's been a life changer. I use an app called Mealime that helps me pick out a weeks worth of meals. Every meal is two servings, so that's dinner and lunch the next day. It also gives you a shopping list for that week. I rarely throw food away anymore. I also don't eat much bread anymore, but that's no great loss.

Zucchini noodles are my new favorite thing. Use a knife to score one side of the zucchini lengthwise, then use a potato peeler lengthwise to make zoodles. Yes, they are called zoodles and it's my new favorite word. Cook up some chicken, set it aside, then heat some alfredo sauce in the same pan (or make your own!), then add the zoodles, and toss them in the warm sauce. You don't actually want to cook them at all, they're great raw. Add the chicken, add some pepper, and you have a meal!

Both. The police mishandled the case, and he should not have been arrested for the rape he didn't commit. But there's really no doubt in my mind he killed that woman. It was the right call, though we got to it in the wrong way.

I think a more interesting question is: what did prison do to him that might have turned him into a killer?